The Black Mirror Miley Cyrus Episode Is All Too Real

The new season of Black Mirror just dropped on Netflix and, although many fans were surprised that there were only three episodes, the show-runners gave quite a detailed explanation to The Wrap as to why.

The fifth season pieces compliment each other well and pack a powerful punch. There has been a lot of hype about the Miley Cyrus episode in particular, which was, according to her, based on her Hannah Montana days. So with all of that, here are my spoiler-free thoughts on it.

In the episode titled “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too,” Miley plays a manufactured pop star named Ashley. She has been groomed to be a role model for little girls but not everything is what it seems. Behind the scenes, Ashley’s management prevent the pop star from being fully herself, creating a haunting satire of Miley’s true-life experience.

This episode is even more disturbing when you consider the way in which pop stars are molded for the contemporary music industry. They basically feel trapped in an image that the label has created in order to sell. The “trapped artist” theme is being expressed more frequenty, for example, in the Jonas Brothers’ Documentary “Chasing Happiness” we see Nick talking about how their TV show didn’t let them evolve. It was also a major aspect of the Lady Gaga film “A Star is Born.” Gaga herself has event said that during her ArtPop-era, she felt her management was using her for profit.

Overall, I felt the episode was above average. Not the worst, but not the best, and definitely thought provoking in ways that that will shock more than one.